Maryland court upholds new trial for man in 'Serial' podcast

In 2000, he was convicted of killing his former high school girlfriend, Hae Min Lee, and leaving her body in Baltimore's Leakin Park.

After a reporter asked if Brown felt "Serial" had supported Syed's case, the lawyer credited Koenig and her team with helping him locate alibi witness Asia McClain, a key player in the podcast.

The Serial podcast was the first in a wave of true crime podcasts and television shows (including Making a Murderer, The Jinx, and The Keepers) to add an additional angle-and occasionally cast doubt-on a conviction.

It was not immediately clear if prosecutors plan to appeal the latest ruling to the state's highest court. Syed, who was the focus of the popular 2014 podcast 'Serial, ' has spent the last 18 years behind bars.

Syed's new attorney C. Justin Brown isn't pulling any punches when it comes to his faith in his client. On Thursday, the Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the ruling granting him a new trial.

Syed's lawyer celebrated the long-awaited decision on Twitter. It's been downloaded more than 175 million times, setting a world record, and spawned numerous podcasts recapping or reviewing it. The ruling can still be appealed to the Court of Appeals, according to ABC News.

As for whether Syed will be released on bail before a new trial, Brown toldCNN: "It's something we'd consider revisiting".

The Maryland Court of Appeals upheld Syed's claim that he received "ineffective assistance of counsel".

"In considering the totality of the evidence at Syed's trial with the potential impact of McClain's alibi testimony, this Court holds that there is a reasonable probability that, but for trial counsel's deficient performance, the result of Syed's trial would have been different", Chief Judge Patrick Woodward wrote for the majority.

"In addition to being incredibly entertaining, it was a great piece of reporting by [producer] Sarah Koening", Brown said.

"We hope that they will come to the conclusion that this has gone on long enough", he said.

"It has definitely helped", he said, explaining that McClain, now an adult, didn't understand her importance to the case until catching wind of the podcast, and made it a point to step forward. "We think we're going to win a trial".